Monday, September 15, 2008

A long weekend's results

I had another three day weekend, to make up for the extra hours I'd put in over the last month or so. You'd think I'd have accomplished more, but not really.

Saturday was errand day. Among other things, I went to embroidery club at the local sewing machine store and got a sneak peak at this. It's got some really nice features, and even though they're offering 3 years same as cash, it still retails for nine thousand dollars. That's a bit much. Especially considering that I just bought this last year, then upgraded it to be the same as this. I'm still paying it off. And I haven't used it enough to justify even considering buying a new one. It was fun to look, though.

Sunday we cleaned the house, since my friend Ann was supposed to come up and sew and/or knit today. During breaks from that I did some knitting on the next washcloth. No pictures of that yet. I also put the binding on this:

Which was no small feat, since I used some polyester embroidery thread that kept breaking on me, despite changing needles and loosening the upper tension. I won't name the brand because I haven't had that problem with their thread before. Must be a bad spool. The colors in it were perfect with the fabric, though.

Hurricane Ike rolled through Sunday. We got a lot of wind and a little rain. I can't complain at all, since my power never went out and my trees didn't lose any big branches. The schools that Ann's kids go to weren't so lucky, and they were closed today. Ann thought it was best to not leave her kids unsupervised all day, so she stayed home with them. :-(

So I was home alone watching this:

They're *FINALLY* resurfacing my street! There's been a big hump perpendicular to the telephone pole at the end of the driveway for years, and it kept getting worse. Fortunately, the water would build up on the side of the hump away from my driveway, or it would have made getting in and out a real adventure in the winter. Today they ground about 3-4" off the road, from end to end. No idea when they'll get around to actually repaving it.

Meanwhile, I put the binding on these minkee/flannel blankies (the centers of these two are the same color, believe it or not):

And I quilted and bound these:

The pink and purple one is just backed with fleece. The pink and plaid one actually has batting and a flannel backing. Those tops are ones I put together at quilt camp.

I still have one more fleece-backed top to quilt and bind, and four more minkee/flannel blankies to bind. Plus several receiving blankets to make from what's left of the flannel. Then I don't know what I'll work on. Probably some more knitting.....

Max update: he's on another week of antibiotics to help calm down the gums where one of his teeth came out. That means another week of tuna juice "treats" for him. He's a happy boy. :)

There was a question about the "Magic Door" I mentioned a couple of posts back. The Magic Door is the pocket door between the kitchen and the living room. Four of the five cats spend the night on the living room side of the Magic Door. Ripley, the 16 year-old, is the only one who gets to stay on the kitchen side (with access to my bedroom) at night. The rest spend their time trying to get on "the other side" of the Magic Door, especially when I'm not on the side they're on. We don't know why for sure. It might have something to do with the fact that Ripley is a nibbler and there's almost always more food on her side of the door. Nah, that can't be it.... :-)